History Hit Podcasts

Food in the Ancient World

When we think of the modern Mediterranean, delicious and vibrant food is one of the first things that come to mind. But how much has the regional...

Royal Sex

Why did kings and queens have spectators on their wedding night? Was sex always just for the love of their country and the want of an heir, or...

What Did the Anglo-Saxons Eat?

Early medieval royals ate mostly meat, right? Wrong! A new study that’s made headlines around the world has shown that medieval kings were...

HMS Black Joke

Please note that this episode contains mentions of racial trauma, slavery and violence.

The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa...

The Aluminium Trail: WW2 Pilots in the Himalayas

Robert ‘Bob’ Binzer wanted to be a pilot from a young age, and during the Second World War he got his wish. Bob was an aviator with the United...

The English Civil War: Loyalty House

The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other, tearing down the old...

The Secret Plot to Kill the Government

On the night of February 23 1820, twenty-five impoverished craftsmen assembled in an obscure stable in Cato Street, London, with a plan to...

The Origins of Homo Sapiens

What do we know about the earliest hominins to exist? With a story spanning one million years and counting, we're discovering more about how we...

The Bicycle with Tim Harford

Invented in the mid-1800s, bicycles have had enduring popularity. Across cultures, they have been embraced, promising freedom and mobility at a...

The Wars of the Roses: Dynastic War

Part one of this comprehensive trilogy covering the Wars of the Roses left the Yorkist lords attained and in exile. From this point, the 15th...

Sex Toys

Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on mantelpieces, wherever you keep them (if you do), sex toys have come a long way since the first...

Post Traumatic Stress: A History of War Trauma

Whether talking about shell shock, war neurosis, combat trauma or PTSD; the impacts of war zones on those who fight in them or encounter them have...

How to Survive in Medieval England

If you travelled back in time to the Medieval period this very second, do you think you would survive? The short answer is probably not. If you...

The Founding of Jamestown

415 years ago this month, 104 English men and boys landed in North America and established a settlement they called Jamestown in...

Climate Optimism with Lily Cole

Environmental activist and model Lily Cole is On Jimmy’s Farm to discuss how we can protect the planet we love, and the healing power of...

The Birth of Physiology

The treatment of mental health has been rapidly growing and improving over the past few decades, but it actually goes back thousands of...

Codebreaking at Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park, Britain's key decryption centre during WWI, is known for the success of breaking the Nazi Enigma codes - experts have suggested...

Operation Pedestal with Sir Max Hastings

By the summer of 1942 Malta had been under siege by Axis forces for over a year and the situation on the island was bleak with food and fuel...

Prozac

How — and why — did Prozac become the best-selling antidepressant of all time? 

As it is Mental Health Awareness Week, we are...

Mental Health in Victorian Britain

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK so we’ve got a special episode exploring the surprising way Victorians approached mental...

The First English Autobiographer: Margery Kempe

Margery Kempe was an English Christian mystic, known for writing "The Book of Margery Kempe", a work considered by some to be the first...